This thing was a pleasure to build. The included plans and videos were some of the most well-thought-out and thoroughly explained plans I have ever seen. It truly is something anybody can do with some time and a little patience. It was most certainly not a difficult build but parts of it can be pretty intricate. Make sure you have the right tools to make the job easier. The most challenging part of the build is dealing with the terrible dimensional lumber you get from the big box retailers. It makes squaring up the framing challenging. But that is certainly nothing to do with the plans and more about the quality of lumber at the big box retailers. Last night was the first time I fired it up and everything worked great. I emailed the owner one evening and had to reply back within a couple of hours. He is truly very helpful and responsive to any questions. I would have to go back and truly add up the receipts, but the XL version was right around $1500 total build.